Often listed among the top 10 fears people have, public speaking is a skill that can help anyone regardless of their age or background. Whether it’s at school, work or among friends and family, the ability to speak in front of an audience – even if it’s an audience of one – can be the key to future success. Thus, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the oldest Toastmasters International organization in Michigan – located here in Grand Rapids – continues to thrive as it celebrates its 70th birthday.

Toastmasters International is a world leader in communication and leadership development. With more than 345,000 members around the world, Toastmasters empowers individuals to become more effective communicators and leaders by providing a safe, supportive and structured setting for its members to acquire and practice meaningful communications and leadership skills on a regular basis to promote and enhance career and personal growth.

Rainbow Child Care Center locations throughout West Michigan teamed up with Kids’ Food Basket, a local nonprofit organization attacking childhood hunger, to support children experiencing food insecurity. The preschool students decorated brown paper bags for children aided by Kids’ Food Basket’s Sack Supper program, which serves 7,500 kids each weekday in West Michigan.

All eight West Michigan Rainbow Child Care Center locations decorated 1,400 bags with positive images using crayons and markers. Each decorated sack not only provides a well-rounded nutritious meal critical to the development of the brain and body, but also helps brighten each recipient’s day.

*15% of all Pizza Sales and $2 of every shirt sold from Women Hunt Too will be donated to Breast Cancer Awareness during this event.*Dawn Freeland from Women Hunt Too will be there from 11am - 2pm for a meet and greet. *Italian Pizza Buffet 11am til 1pm*Breast Cancer Awareness Tee Shirts an

Parents want the best education for their children. Increased engagement with their child’s school gives them an opportunity to see that through. School choices continue to emerge, with online education thriving amongst families in the United States with a 58 percent increase in enrollment since 2010.

Great Lakes Cyber Academy is a tuition free school serving students in grades 6-12. As an online school, Great Lakes Cyber Academy allows local families from communities like city to learn from the comfort of their own homes, or wherever there is an internet connection. Enrollment numbers continue to increase with this learning model because of satisfaction with virtual education, the level of expertise through online institutions and the rigorous curriculum of the offered programs. One of the primary benefits of Great Lakes Cyber Academy is the level of parent engagement across all grade levels.

Approximately 94 percent of parents whose children are enrolled at Nexus Academy of Grand Rapids would recommend the school, according to a recent parent satisfaction survey. The blended learning school delivers a combination of online and face-to-face instruction in an engaging and flexible educational setting committed to making each student’s success a priority, .

The 2015-16 survey was administered by an independent market research company, which created the questionnaire, collected the data, and tabulated the results. High marks were achieved with 89 percent of Nexus Academy of Grand Rapids parents giving the school an A or B grade.

Rainbow Child Care Center (Rainbow), a provider of academic-focused, early-childhood education with more than 120 centers across 12 states, recently celebrated its annual Summer Social with local families and special guest, Clarity Newhouse, professional race car driver.

Families that attended the event at Rainbow’s center in Walker, enjoyed interacting with Newhouse and getting an up-close look at her race car. Doubling as a Mobile Science Lab, Newhouse’s race car provided young students an opportunity to explore science, technology, engineering and math during a fun, hands-on science lesson.